Is this really a Game?!

Swish

A head of a monster flew high up in the air as the headless body continued running past Reign and continued further for a couple of seconds before falling down on the ground. A large trail of blood was left in its wake and Reign simply continued walking while glancing at those that were currently fighting the monsters.

The mountain range was a big danger to the kingdom, but it was also their biggest advantage and something that the other kingdoms were mildly jealous of. The kingdom of Riplas could send their men into the mountain range and allow them to level up faster than any other kingdom could thanks to the scarcity of monsters not only in the area but in the world.

Only a few places in the world could be found that have a large population of monsters, and the most dangerous of such places were situated right next to the most powerful empire of the world, or to be better said, the empires made it so that those places were close in order to always have a high number of monsters they could hunt and stay ahead of the other forces of the world.

The mountain range was one similar place, just with monsters that were of course not nearly as powerful as those near the empires. It was still considered a strategic resource as it could help the kingdom out tremendously when it came to not only increasing the levels of their combatants but also gaining resources from the monsters and many mines inside the mountain range.

The only reason why Riplas was still standing after being attacked by two of the most powerful kingdoms in the area can largely be attributed to the mountain range that had allowed them to increase their levels explosively.

The mountain range was vast and exploring would take the group some time, not to mention finding aerial monsters that would help them out in their quest to attack the capital.

Reign had mostly done nothing but spectate as the monsters they had encountered so far were only weak Tier II monsters, but each time one made the mistake of attacking him, he would quickly kill the monster in a single blow before continuing his leisure walk.

Raigon and Eisenhorn did the same, they didn't fight the monsters except for times when they were outnumbered and had to help out in order for the others to survive or not be injured.

None of the people present in the group was a healer, and being wounded would not be good for them here. Reign had a lot of healing potions, but they didn't know that, and even if they did, they would feel bad using such valuable resources when he was already helping them out with everything else.

They had been in the mountain range for about 2 hours, but since the mountain range itself is so huge, it would probably take them days to fully explore it.

Exploration was not the goal of this mission, however. The only thing they needed to do was find some aerial monsters, nothing else.

The moment they did so, they would then quickly make their way over to the monsters and try to tame or beat them into submission. Since none of the people here were tamers and had never tried taming monsters before, they were going to use the second option since it was simply much easier for them that way.

Reign and the others made their way through the mountain range and fought numerous weird-looking monsters along the way. None of the monsters were nearly powerful enough to threaten the safety of the group, and Raigon, Eisenhorn, or Reign would occasionally kill the monsters before they were able to get close to the group in order to save time and to let the others rest a bit.

Licht was currently a peak Tier II combatant and he was the most powerful among the Tier II combatants in the group. His magic had seen great improvement ever since his and Reign's battle and he was able to deal with all the monsters by himself, but his mana would of course end up getting expended quite quickly if he was to take on all of them each time.

As for Reign and the other two, they would barely even use any mana in order to deal with the monsters, especially Reign who was the most powerful fighter in the group. He and Eisenhorn could kill any monster that approached them with a single swing of their weapon.

None of them knew exactly how powerful the monsters that lived deep inside the mountain range were. Even the kingdoms on the other side of the mountain range had never gone so deep inside of it since the monsters were too powerful for them.

Riplas had information about the kingdoms near the mountain range, and from the information they gathered, the most powerful combatants of the kingdoms were Tier II, with one of the kingdoms having an old Tier III combatant that usually kept to himself and rarely showed himself.

Right now, the kingdom was more than powerful enough to defeat such enemies and would perhaps have enough power in the future to completely dominate the mountain range and even use it as a way to attack the kingdoms if they needed to.

Of course, that was all true before Raigon and the others had learned of the queen and how most of the higher-ups of the kingdom were loyal to a being that was not human.

Her plans were still a mystery to Raigon and the rest, but they doubted that they were anything good. She had not fought back when the alliance was first made against Riplas, even though she could have easily crushed them with her power.

Even when the two kingdoms started their invasion and the demons appeared, she still stayed back and acted as if she was just a weakling that couldn't help out. With Reign telling them that there is a high possibility that the queen was actually the one behind the invasion, Raigon and the others had even more reasons why they were not bending their knee and were fighting against the kingdom they loved so much.

With somebody that had done such things to be in charge of the kingdom, it would lead them all to ruin. At the very least, the people would suffer and it would definitely turn into a kingdom where humans were not really treated well, which was the last thing any of them wished to see.

Her puppets that showed great power were difficult enemies to fight against, but they were not as powerful as normal combatants of the same realm. Her own power was great,  but it was still not enough to go against both Reign and Eisenhorn.

The only obstacle they needed to overcome was how to surprise the enemy, and with an aerial monster aiding them, that would soon be solved as well.

With the sheer power and presence the party had, it was easy for them to go deeper inside the mountain range without having to stop for long periods of time.

The monsters were simply not strong enough to force them to stop or take frequent breaks, and in 4 more hours, they had reached deeper inside where mid-grade and even some high-grade Tier II monsters could be found.

The high-grade monsters were still relatively rare and quite far away from each other, but they had come close to the group a couple of times, only to escape in the end after sensing their strength was not enough to deal with them.

Even after so long had passed, they were still unable to find any aerial beasts. The Tier II combatants were exhausted as they were all running full speed this whole time. They would only slow down during times when monsters attacked them, but even then, they would be expending their stamina greatly because they were fighting.

After running and fighting for so long, they of course needed to take a rest. Even Reign and the other two weren't completely void of any tiredness since they had been running together with the rest this whole time.

Since the sun was also slowly setting, they all decided to find a safe spot where they would rest for the night.

There were no such places in the mountain range, however, as it was inhabited completely by monsters and the closest thing to a safe spot would be nests of said monsters.

Nobody wanted to go to a nest, so they needed to make their own place for rest tonight.

That was actually a lot easier to be done than expected.

Reign and Eisenhorn used their weapons to cut away a large chunk of a wall before deepening the hole and creating a makeshift cave in mere minutes.

They then placed some of the giant rocks that they had cut out of the wall and put them in front of the cave in order to make the opening smaller and less conspicuous.

Raigon used his ability to fully cover the entrance and make it invisible on sight as they all stayed inside.